This was an historic production with both Josephine Barstow (Octavian) and Valerie Masterson (Sophie) accepted as irreplaceable in these roles. With Charles Mackerras conducting, it was a superb performance, reasonably well recorded, but with prominence given to the orchestra rather than to the singers.The problem is the presence of a prompter who is recorded loud and clear, ruining the first Act, although he seems to disappear thereafter.If I could I would give the set five stars, but bracketed.It's a great shame.Chris Rouse

I am in tears as I listen to the divine Ms Masterson as Sophie - her singing in the high points duet & trio is totally exquisite/

McDonall, Masterson and Barstow all superb and beautifully conducted by Mackerras in very good sound. It reminds one of what ENO was.... Also received Highlights from ROH 1954 (Fisher, Leigh and Shacklock) when they still sang in English though beautifully conducted by Kempe. Sadly it is recorded from the Prompt corner but if the rest of the performance exists I would buy it. Many thanks Neil Dalrymple

This performance records the first cast of John Copley’s definitive 1975 English National Opera “Rosenkavalier” with one exception. Anne Evans, first-cast Marschallin, was indisposed; her replacement, Lois McDonnell, who would lead the second cast, had not learnt the words yet (hence audible prompting). Even though London recently had heard Carlos Kleiber in this music, Mackerras’s grasp and shaping of it were at once ideal. Valerie Masterson, Sophie here, was a beloved house artist making one breakthrough after another in the years 1973-79; the breakthrough of this season was the floated high notes of the Presentation of the Rose (she said in interview that her ideal for those notes was Zinka Milanov) - though she only later (that autumn) acquired the legato to underpin them. Her diction, full of feeling, was always exemplary; the way she tells Ochs “You would not understand” has haunted me for over forty years. Barstow never sang Octavian again after this first cast - in the early 1980s she graduated to the Marschallin, as Masterson did later too - and this performance captures absolutely her odd, individual, sound and diction. Really she had to be seen; I am haunted by tiny movements she made in this role more than by her singing even after renewing acquaintance with it - and enjoying it - here. The supporting singers were all ENO regulars; Judith Green, who had made a strong impression as a “Siegfried” Brünnhilde a couple of years before, is a marvellously vivid Marianne.

Total bliss.I saw this production, although not with this particular permutation of singers together (I did see each artist with different colleagues) and still remember the excitement with which my father presented the cassettes to me which he had recorded so carefully. I still have them.Listening back through a haze of nostalgia, it's hard to be impartially critical but I can't see anyone being anything other than ravished by what they hear. Josephine Barstow, despite some hazy diction and curdled sounds, shows exactly why Strauss wrote Octavian for a soprano; Lois McDonall, who jumped in at the very shortest notice for Anne Evans and is audibly promoted during Act One - she was in the second cast but not yet fully prepared, makes some simply ravishing sounds in the Third Act; and words are not equal to describe the magic that is Valerie Masterson's Sophie. Later in her career, she was a most moving, and notably youthful, Marschallin, but her pianissimo singing in Act Two has never been equalled in my experience (also with a most tender plangency underlying the silver) and she is also able to match her colleagues in power during the Trio. Terrific playing under Sir Charles Mackerras and excellent sound. I loved it.

This is a wonderful performance from the golden age of the English National Opera. I saw the production twice in 1975, and it was as glorious visually as it was musically. Barstow is a characterful, soprano (it makes a difference!) Octavian, and although Lois McDonall's Marschallin (standing in for Anne Evans) can be verbally indistinct at times, she has a lovely creamy tone. However, Valerie Masterson's Sophie is glorious; a review at the time suggested she was the best Sophie in the world at the time, and Lord Harewood, in his autobiography, referred to her unique sound in this role, singing that aspires to greatness. Her wonderful pianissimo singing in the Presentation of the Rose has set a standard for me that I have never heard equalled and she is both clear in diction and a real characterful presence. Sound is excellent.